O Little Town of Pheonix

Word...


So about a week ago I got home from my very first mission trip, down south in Louisiana.

You can check out the pics here.

On our way out on Sunday one of the women from church told me to have fun and then said "there's just something about manual labor!" And my reply was that there really is. I love that kind of stuff and it is even better when you get the chance to do it for someone else.

So, we got down after the 20 hour van ride. I layed tile and painted the trim around the house. There was nice weather, but best of all really nice people. We got to spend a bit of time with a family whose house we didn't even work on. They were gracious enough to share a meal with us and then invite us into their home that they are working on rebuilding to try some authentic Gumbo. It was amazing, tons of different things go into that stuff, including what look like huge crab claws. Yummmm!!

I was really amazed at the sense of community that all of these people shared. It was a small town, you had to cross the Mississippi River by ferry to get to the grocery store. Everyone knew everyone else, not only that, they cared about everyone else. While we were working there were people popping up in the house all day long to see how things were going. We heard stories of people getting up at 5:30 in the morning to get a ferry over the river to be able to help the groups that were down there with building the houses.

There are some amazing people and amazing things taking place in a very devastated area. Donald, the husband of the family we spent some time with said that when things are happening that you don't know what God is thinking, what God has planned next. But afterward sometimes you can see what he had up his sleeve. If Katrina hadn't happened there wouldn't be hundreds or thousands of people giving up their comfortable lives to go down and help these people. There wouldn't be people that needed help.

People from all over the country are coming together in this one place and learning about community. I believe that Acts 2 is being carried out in that place everyday. People coming together in fellowship, breaking bread, giving to everyone as they have need, and having everything in common.

I didn't think about that at all going into this whole thing. As I came out of it I want to be like those people down there. People that have lost everything but feel like they have gained so much more. I am hoping to be more aware and intentional of caring for the community that I find myself in.




My salutation says it all
May you always have enough
Peace and love...